french cheese, sandwiches
by Jolene Thym
It was a Friday night and I had a choice: I could stay home and cook, or I could accept an invitation to meet a group of French cheesemakers on tour in the U.S. -- and to eat French cheese in San Francisco.
I love to cook, but because I am convinced that there is nothing more delicious than a hunk of smelly French cheese, I headed across the bridge. I followed my nose to the second floor, and into a room where tables were mounded with cheese.
More cheeses were cut into wedges and chunks, but my eyes focused on the giant hunks of seven different cheeses at each place setting. I do love cheese, but this appeared to be overkill.
Slowly and methodically, I tasted the cheeses in order. Some were soft and spreadable, others just the right texture for grating on pasta, or slicing for sandwiches.
The cheese-de-resistance came last, a Roquefort made with sheep's milk that was smooth in texture, gorgeous in color, and pungently delicious.
The funniest thing about the evening was when we left. Each guest was handed several pounds of cheese to enjoy. We were told that the French cheesemakers had overestimated their cheese needs -- by a few hundred pounds.
I, for one, was happy to lighten their load.
french cheese
Readmore »»
Tuesday
Critical Thinking To Go: Dodging The Pepperoni Pizza Fallacy
pepperoni pizza
by Carson C. Day
Today we commonly hear in the news journalistic items about religion and politics, or faith and something else, where the suggested "duo du jour" usually sit in opposition to one another. One could do this, of course, just as easily with other areas of human thought, as with sociology vs. history, or economics vs. psychology. But most people do not seem nearly as interested in this exercise as they seem anxious to set "religion" over against whatever other area they might find interesting.
But this represents quite an odd way to view things (at the very best), and one might rightly call it propaganda (at the worst) in many instances. You see, life does not come at us in slices, as though it were one very large pepperoni pizza to go. When humans experience an event, we do not encounter it in a parade of neatly snipped segments, as though the civil war first showed us its psychological effects, then came its economic aspects, only after which we then got a look at its technological innovations.
Just as with the runningback who grasps a fumbled football in the midst of many linesmen, life happens to us "all at once." Only after taking in an historically important event, and reflecting on it a bit, can we slice it up to study some of parts or aspects in isolation from the others -- as pundits might do, say, in an economics textbook. This, of course, makes students especially prone to confuse the way things happen on paper with how they occur on a battlefield, or in the midst of a revolution.
Now this fallacy -- the error of confusing real life with its written counterpart, does not show up in informal logic texts. But it should, since it clearly misleads many these days.
So, what to call it? I at first tried the "fallacy of compartmentalized reality." I can hear the students now, "WhatEVER." Then I mused, "fallacy of reflective segmenting." huh? Finally, I landed on the more user-friendly label, the "Pepperoni Pizza" fallacy. Surely students could grab and digest this supreme combination of words (or was that "combination supreme"?).
By way of illustration, I recently engaged a lively proponent of Mr. Darwin's views. In the course of our discussion, he suggested that evolutionary notions merely comprised "biological theories," and that I had mistakenly inquired about the ethics of it all. Here, the pepperoni began to fly.
He didn't seem to realize (as Mr. Darwin clearly did) that theories we might properly call "biological," (or scientific) can -- and often do -- have obvious ethical implications. Ideas have logical effects not restricted to one academic field. You cannot win a debate by simply put an arbitrary fence around an idea and yelling at its entailed offspring "Now stay!" Like illegal aliens -- they tend to jump the borders when you aren't looking.
This means that Darwinism, neo-Darwinism and "Punctuationism," like all other ideas, have logical consequences (implications) that affect every area of human thought and life. This is why you can find evolutionary ideas discussed in psychology textbooks, history books, and even pop magazines.
In any case, evading or ignoring certain aspects of an idea's logical consequences to gain the upper hand in a debate -- or else to keep one's ship from sinking altogether -- now has a name. Armed with this knowlegde, you can clearly and distinctly show others when the need arises, that life tranpires only as a set of integrated circumstances, and that ideas have logical effects not properly limited to any one academic field.
Reality and logic do not come made-to-order with extra cheese, so you don't get a discount on them with a coupon. To make a good case, then, we must follow the rules of valid and sound reasoning.
pepperoni pizza Readmore »»
by Carson C. Day
Today we commonly hear in the news journalistic items about religion and politics, or faith and something else, where the suggested "duo du jour" usually sit in opposition to one another. One could do this, of course, just as easily with other areas of human thought, as with sociology vs. history, or economics vs. psychology. But most people do not seem nearly as interested in this exercise as they seem anxious to set "religion" over against whatever other area they might find interesting.
But this represents quite an odd way to view things (at the very best), and one might rightly call it propaganda (at the worst) in many instances. You see, life does not come at us in slices, as though it were one very large pepperoni pizza to go. When humans experience an event, we do not encounter it in a parade of neatly snipped segments, as though the civil war first showed us its psychological effects, then came its economic aspects, only after which we then got a look at its technological innovations.
Just as with the runningback who grasps a fumbled football in the midst of many linesmen, life happens to us "all at once." Only after taking in an historically important event, and reflecting on it a bit, can we slice it up to study some of parts or aspects in isolation from the others -- as pundits might do, say, in an economics textbook. This, of course, makes students especially prone to confuse the way things happen on paper with how they occur on a battlefield, or in the midst of a revolution.
Now this fallacy -- the error of confusing real life with its written counterpart, does not show up in informal logic texts. But it should, since it clearly misleads many these days.
So, what to call it? I at first tried the "fallacy of compartmentalized reality." I can hear the students now, "WhatEVER." Then I mused, "fallacy of reflective segmenting." huh? Finally, I landed on the more user-friendly label, the "Pepperoni Pizza" fallacy. Surely students could grab and digest this supreme combination of words (or was that "combination supreme"?).
By way of illustration, I recently engaged a lively proponent of Mr. Darwin's views. In the course of our discussion, he suggested that evolutionary notions merely comprised "biological theories," and that I had mistakenly inquired about the ethics of it all. Here, the pepperoni began to fly.
He didn't seem to realize (as Mr. Darwin clearly did) that theories we might properly call "biological," (or scientific) can -- and often do -- have obvious ethical implications. Ideas have logical effects not restricted to one academic field. You cannot win a debate by simply put an arbitrary fence around an idea and yelling at its entailed offspring "Now stay!" Like illegal aliens -- they tend to jump the borders when you aren't looking.
This means that Darwinism, neo-Darwinism and "Punctuationism," like all other ideas, have logical consequences (implications) that affect every area of human thought and life. This is why you can find evolutionary ideas discussed in psychology textbooks, history books, and even pop magazines.
In any case, evading or ignoring certain aspects of an idea's logical consequences to gain the upper hand in a debate -- or else to keep one's ship from sinking altogether -- now has a name. Armed with this knowlegde, you can clearly and distinctly show others when the need arises, that life tranpires only as a set of integrated circumstances, and that ideas have logical effects not properly limited to any one academic field.
Reality and logic do not come made-to-order with extra cheese, so you don't get a discount on them with a coupon. To make a good case, then, we must follow the rules of valid and sound reasoning.
pepperoni pizza Readmore »»
Cherry Cheesecake
cherry pie, cheesecake, vanilla extract
By Elizabeth Morgan
Looking for the perfect dessert to bring for Thanksgiving dinner or a deliciously sweet treat to impress an important date? Then a cherry cheesecake is your answer. This simple yet intricately flavorful cheesecake is great for both a big family lunch fest and a romantic dinner, especially with a light sparkling wine.
And no, forget about buying the cherry cheesecake. Why don’t you make one instead? With the right tools and this simple how-to, you’ll be able to put together a scrumptious cherry cheesecake in no time.
For the crust, you will need a cup of graham cracker crumbs, sugar (about three to four tablespoons is enough), and some melted butter. To make the cheesecake, you will need softened cream cheese and about three to four medium-sized eggs (both the eggs and the cream cheese should be at room temperature). You will also need about fifteen ounces of chilled, cherry pie-filling, sugar, and vanilla extract.
Now that you have all the ingredients on hand, you can start by making the crust. Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, the melted butter and the sugar, and then force the mixture down into the bottom of a spring-form pan. Pop this in the oven and bake it at about 350 degrees for ten to twelve minutes.
While baking, go right on to making the cake. It’s a good idea to use an electric mixer to blend together the cream cheese, the eggs (remember to drop them in one by one), and then the vanilla and sugar. Once you get a firm consistency, bake it at about 450 degrees for ten minutes. Then, adjust the temperature to about 25 degrees lower and go on baking for another forty minutes.
You can then carefully take the cake off the pan and let the cake cool. Pop it in the refrigerator overnight (or for at least nine to twelve hours). Finally, generously spread the cherry filling over the cake.
cherry pie
cheesecake Readmore »»
By Elizabeth Morgan
Looking for the perfect dessert to bring for Thanksgiving dinner or a deliciously sweet treat to impress an important date? Then a cherry cheesecake is your answer. This simple yet intricately flavorful cheesecake is great for both a big family lunch fest and a romantic dinner, especially with a light sparkling wine.
And no, forget about buying the cherry cheesecake. Why don’t you make one instead? With the right tools and this simple how-to, you’ll be able to put together a scrumptious cherry cheesecake in no time.
For the crust, you will need a cup of graham cracker crumbs, sugar (about three to four tablespoons is enough), and some melted butter. To make the cheesecake, you will need softened cream cheese and about three to four medium-sized eggs (both the eggs and the cream cheese should be at room temperature). You will also need about fifteen ounces of chilled, cherry pie-filling, sugar, and vanilla extract.
Now that you have all the ingredients on hand, you can start by making the crust. Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, the melted butter and the sugar, and then force the mixture down into the bottom of a spring-form pan. Pop this in the oven and bake it at about 350 degrees for ten to twelve minutes.
While baking, go right on to making the cake. It’s a good idea to use an electric mixer to blend together the cream cheese, the eggs (remember to drop them in one by one), and then the vanilla and sugar. Once you get a firm consistency, bake it at about 450 degrees for ten minutes. Then, adjust the temperature to about 25 degrees lower and go on baking for another forty minutes.
You can then carefully take the cake off the pan and let the cake cool. Pop it in the refrigerator overnight (or for at least nine to twelve hours). Finally, generously spread the cherry filling over the cake.
cherry pie
cheesecake Readmore »»
Friday
Iowa cheese co-op helps preserve a way of life
goat milk , cheesemaking
Rural Cooperatives
Like the blue cheese it produces, the Golden Ridge Cheese Cooperative had to age a while before it was ready to go.
Founded five years ago by 40 Old Order Amish dairy farmers in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota, Golden Ridge was plagued by a series of production problems before the first blue cheese wheels were shipped from its 12,500-square-foot plant north of Cresco, Iowa, last January.
The Amish farmers invested more of their own capital into the plant, for a total of $1 million, and brought in Neville McNaughton, a New Zealand native and cheese consultant who now lives in St. Louis. Like the blue mold that turns the Amish milk into cheese, McNaughton's addition as general manager has turned the Golden Ridge co-op into a going operation.
The co-op got a big boost in July when its Schwarz und "Weiss natural rind blue cheese tied for first place in the blue cheese category of the American Cheese Society's annual contest held in Milwaukee.
The competition is "considered one of the world's most influential and prestigious competitions in recognizing the art of specialty cheesemaking," according to the American Cheese Society's Web site. Since the announcement of the award, McNaughton said, "Cheese is now flying out of here. People are calling us." Prospects at the co-op weren't so rosy when McNaughton first showed up at the Golden Ridge plant.
"This was a stalled project," he said.
"They couldn't decide how to get this up and running."
McNaughton did a three-day assessment of the operation and re-wrote the co-op's business plan. The co-op had been focused on making what McNaughton called commodity blue cheese. "We refocused the plant on making a quality product that plays to the strength of the milk," he said.
A $2 million loan guarantee was obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development agency [USDA Rural Development]. That loan guarantee allowed the co-op's bank to advance it more money to reconfigure the plant.
Dan Gingerich, an Old Order Amish dairy producer from Lanesboro, Minn., said the co-op members "didn't realize what we were getting into" when they decided to form the co-op and make cheese. The dairy, producers milk their small herds by hand and sell the milk in stainless steel cans weighing 80 pounds that hold just under 10 gallons of milk. The number of dairy, processors willing to handle their milk cans had dropped from five to one, Gingerich said, narrowing their marketing options considerably.
"I'm trying to hang on to the dairy," he said. "It got tougher to make a living on the farm than 20 years ago."
Forming a cooperative to produce cheese in a modern plant needed to be examined by leaders of the Old Order Amish, Gingerich said. For religious reasons, Old Order Amish do not use many kinds of modern machinery. Their lifestyle is best known for the horse-and-buggy transportation on which the Amish rely. "Our elders thought that in order to keep the family farms going, we needed to change," Gingerich said.
"We needed something like this so our children won't have to live on one or two acres and become factory workers. On the one hand, it might be a modern concept, but on the other hand, we needed to have something like the cheese plant to keep our way of life going."
With McNaughton on board and the American Cheese Society award, Gingerich said he thinks Golden Ridge has turned the corner. Golden Ridge makes three cheese products: Schwarz und Weiss, which means "black and white" in German; Harmony Blue, which has extra cream added, and Ultimate 50, which is half Amish cow milk and half goat milk supplied by Joy Peckham, whose Peckview Dairy Goats operation is near the plant.
Peckham sells the Golden Ridge cheese and her other dairy goat products at the Metro Market in Des Moines and the Des Moines Farmers Market.
"Last weekend, I sold everything I brought in from Golden Ridge in the first hour," Peckham said. "I wish I had brought more." Peckham said she hopes the Ultimate 50 cheese takes off so she can eventually sell to Golden Ridge all of the 500,000 pounds of goat milk produced annually by her goats. Now, she sells almost all of her goat milk to a plant in Illinois.
Steve Logsdon, owner of the Basil Prosperi Bakery in Des Moines, said Schwarz und Weiss is selling well out of his dairy case.
"We carry European blue cheeses and Australian blue cheeses, and we've had a really good response to the Golden Ridge cheese," Logsdon said. "People like the fact that it's from Iowa and that they are using their own milk." The Golden Ridge cheese also is priced competitively, he said, with a half-pound selling for $7 to $8, about the same as the nationally known Maytag blue cheese, the only other blue cheese made in Iowa.
Swiss Valley Farms, a farmer-owned cooperative with operations in Iowa, makes blue cheese at its plant in Mindoro, Wis. Myrna Ver Ploeg, president of Maytag Dairy Farms, said she did not think the Golden Ridge and Maytag blue cheeses can be compared. "Ours is so different because it is made by hand," Vet Ploeg said. "They are very different cheeses, and they satisfy different markets." Readmore »»
Rural Cooperatives
Like the blue cheese it produces, the Golden Ridge Cheese Cooperative had to age a while before it was ready to go.
Founded five years ago by 40 Old Order Amish dairy farmers in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota, Golden Ridge was plagued by a series of production problems before the first blue cheese wheels were shipped from its 12,500-square-foot plant north of Cresco, Iowa, last January.
The Amish farmers invested more of their own capital into the plant, for a total of $1 million, and brought in Neville McNaughton, a New Zealand native and cheese consultant who now lives in St. Louis. Like the blue mold that turns the Amish milk into cheese, McNaughton's addition as general manager has turned the Golden Ridge co-op into a going operation.
The co-op got a big boost in July when its Schwarz und "Weiss natural rind blue cheese tied for first place in the blue cheese category of the American Cheese Society's annual contest held in Milwaukee.
The competition is "considered one of the world's most influential and prestigious competitions in recognizing the art of specialty cheesemaking," according to the American Cheese Society's Web site. Since the announcement of the award, McNaughton said, "Cheese is now flying out of here. People are calling us." Prospects at the co-op weren't so rosy when McNaughton first showed up at the Golden Ridge plant.
"This was a stalled project," he said.
"They couldn't decide how to get this up and running."
McNaughton did a three-day assessment of the operation and re-wrote the co-op's business plan. The co-op had been focused on making what McNaughton called commodity blue cheese. "We refocused the plant on making a quality product that plays to the strength of the milk," he said.
A $2 million loan guarantee was obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development agency [USDA Rural Development]. That loan guarantee allowed the co-op's bank to advance it more money to reconfigure the plant.
Dan Gingerich, an Old Order Amish dairy producer from Lanesboro, Minn., said the co-op members "didn't realize what we were getting into" when they decided to form the co-op and make cheese. The dairy, producers milk their small herds by hand and sell the milk in stainless steel cans weighing 80 pounds that hold just under 10 gallons of milk. The number of dairy, processors willing to handle their milk cans had dropped from five to one, Gingerich said, narrowing their marketing options considerably.
"I'm trying to hang on to the dairy," he said. "It got tougher to make a living on the farm than 20 years ago."
Forming a cooperative to produce cheese in a modern plant needed to be examined by leaders of the Old Order Amish, Gingerich said. For religious reasons, Old Order Amish do not use many kinds of modern machinery. Their lifestyle is best known for the horse-and-buggy transportation on which the Amish rely. "Our elders thought that in order to keep the family farms going, we needed to change," Gingerich said.
"We needed something like this so our children won't have to live on one or two acres and become factory workers. On the one hand, it might be a modern concept, but on the other hand, we needed to have something like the cheese plant to keep our way of life going."
With McNaughton on board and the American Cheese Society award, Gingerich said he thinks Golden Ridge has turned the corner. Golden Ridge makes three cheese products: Schwarz und Weiss, which means "black and white" in German; Harmony Blue, which has extra cream added, and Ultimate 50, which is half Amish cow milk and half goat milk supplied by Joy Peckham, whose Peckview Dairy Goats operation is near the plant.
Peckham sells the Golden Ridge cheese and her other dairy goat products at the Metro Market in Des Moines and the Des Moines Farmers Market.
"Last weekend, I sold everything I brought in from Golden Ridge in the first hour," Peckham said. "I wish I had brought more." Peckham said she hopes the Ultimate 50 cheese takes off so she can eventually sell to Golden Ridge all of the 500,000 pounds of goat milk produced annually by her goats. Now, she sells almost all of her goat milk to a plant in Illinois.
Steve Logsdon, owner of the Basil Prosperi Bakery in Des Moines, said Schwarz und Weiss is selling well out of his dairy case.
"We carry European blue cheeses and Australian blue cheeses, and we've had a really good response to the Golden Ridge cheese," Logsdon said. "People like the fact that it's from Iowa and that they are using their own milk." The Golden Ridge cheese also is priced competitively, he said, with a half-pound selling for $7 to $8, about the same as the nationally known Maytag blue cheese, the only other blue cheese made in Iowa.
Swiss Valley Farms, a farmer-owned cooperative with operations in Iowa, makes blue cheese at its plant in Mindoro, Wis. Myrna Ver Ploeg, president of Maytag Dairy Farms, said she did not think the Golden Ridge and Maytag blue cheeses can be compared. "Ours is so different because it is made by hand," Vet Ploeg said. "They are very different cheeses, and they satisfy different markets." Readmore »»
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